Wednesday, February 29, 2012

REVIEW: GI Joe Slaughter's Marauders Battle Set - Spirit Iron-Knife

Produced by Hasbro | Released January 2012 [Big Bad Toy Store-Exclusive]

SPIRIT IRON-KNIFE is a Native American mystic warrior with a degree in psychology, and the best wilderness tracker on the GI JOE team. he uses his uncanny ability to find and read the faintest signs, and his keen understanding of human nature, to not only track but also anticipate his quarry's actions. In the field, he can create his own weapons, as well as traps, snares and deadfalls.

Spirit Iron-Knife

Like today's earlier Mini-Review of Mercenary, I'm going to keep this brief, as I still have an additional two figures from the set to look at after Spirit Iron-Knife and - truth be told - none of them are really that groundbreaking.

So here's the Spirit Iron-Knife quick Review.

Sculpt and Design

Pros

Cons

Knife sheath

Weird facial expression

Nicely detailed webbing/pouches

Shirtless design looks weird/unfinished

Hands struggle to hold weapons

Feet don't attach particularly well to the stand

Articulation

Pros

Cons

Standard range of GI Joe movement

No extra joints (such as wrist or ankles)

Joints are firm but not stiff

''Rifle'' hand struggles with knife

Vest doesn't inhibit movement

''Knife'' hand struggles with rifle

Paint

Pros

Cons

Neatly applied

Blue is very bright/cartoonish

Chest tattoo tampo is cool

Eye app makes him look somewhat surprised

Camouflaged pants pattern is nicely applied

Extras and Accessories

Pros

Cons

Colour choice is lifelike

Impossible to pose him firing the rifle

Knife is a cool accessory

Getting him to hold weapons is difficult

Detachable ammo clip is a nice touch

Final Thoughts

Spirit Iron-Knife could - and should - have been a lot better. Sadly, whilst the basic figure's design is pretty neat, Hasbro really dropped the ball with his accessories. The rifle - although a nice tribute to the earlier figures' weapons - is sadly nigh-on impossible to pose him with, due to the weird hilt design. Put simply, he cannot hold the weapon in any kind of shooting pose and so it's relegated to looking like something he's just found lying around and decided to carry around with him.

I'm also not a massive fan of the vest/webbing he comes equipped with, as it appears more like a cast-off, ''spare'' part Hasbro had lying around than anything else and - unless I'm missing something here - I don't recall seeing him wear anything like this. Which would be fine if this was a Pursuit of Cobra-style update to the character (like that released as a Toys R Us exclusive) but given how most of the Slaughter's Marauders figures are supposed to represent the ''original'' designs, this seems an odd move.

With better accessories, Spirit Iron-Knife could have been a pretty neat figure. As it is though, it feels more like this is a work-in-progress of what we should expect, rather than the actual release.